The field of use for the present disclosure extends primarily to automation systems in which the system-internal communication between the appliances usually takes place using field bus protocols, such as PROFIBUS. Appliances which communicate with one another and/or with a central control entity within the framework of such an automation system may be in the form of actuators, analysis appliances, drives, motor protection units, switchgear, sensors (particularly for pressure, temperature and flow measurements). Every appliance of the type of interest here is equipped with an electronics units which can perform various types of functions, such as operator control functions, startup functions, diagnosis functions, servicing functions, authorization functions, alarm processing functions and service-life monitoring functions.
The trend in the art is increasingly to integrate ever higher levels of intelligence into the automation system, particularly into the individual appliances, in order to modernize work processes, improve processing product quality and maximize availability. In particular, intelligent diagnosis functions make it possible to monitor the state of wear of dynamic seals, the reaction time of a control element after a setpoint value has been prescribed, pressure monitoring operations in line sections and the like in order to perform servicing and maintenance measures efficiently over the course of regular need-controlled servicing intervals.
US 2007/35398 A1 reveals a technical solution for such state monitoring of appliances in an automation system. This software-based technical solution gathers status information from appliances in an automation system and outputs them via a web page. A user interface can be used to display this web page, together with associated data records. This information can be used to establish a need for servicing.
A drawback of this technical solution is that the method only signals a need for servicing or maintenance for an appliance, but does not provide any significant assistance for the servicing or maintenance which then inevitably needs to be performed. For this, the servicing personnel needs to resort conventionally to a library of manuals for the relevant appliance in order to obtain more detailed information about the setup and operation and also servicing specifications of the appliance. Often, such manuals are not available directly in-situ but rather are located centrally with an external servicing service. To date, this problem has been solved by virtue of an expert in a central external servicing service supplying information which is required for servicing or maintenance to the servicing personnel in-situ by telephone. This communication path between the expert and the servicing personnel in-situ can result in time delays on account of interrupted information channels or even misunderstandings through the wrong questions being asked or the wrong responses being given.